How to Build a Massive LED Wall on a Budget
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2024
- Written Instructions: www.instructables.com/Build-Y...
All the files you need: github.com/TechRandom/Massive...
You can support the development of future projects by purchasing supplies with these affiliate links. A small percentage of the transaction will go straight to me at no additional cost to you!
Materials
16 x 5m 30P/m (150 Pixels) WS2812b LED Strip
amzn.to/3x9DzOK
1 x ESP 8266 microcontroller (6 pack) - 1 extra just in case
amzn.to/3llyYqe
4 x 5V 60A DC Power Supply
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4 x AC Power Cord
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4 x 1kg Black PLA Filament
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1 x Light-Diffusing Cloth
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1 x 36x48 inch Cardboard Sheets (5 Pack)
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Other Supplies
3D Printer - amzn.to/3KiTst6 - Insane value beginner printer
Soldering Iron - amzn.to/3x9KzLx
16 Gauge Wire - amzn.to/3DWSKPr
Wire Stripper- amzn.to/3IclCp6
Duct Tape - amzn.to/3YGJNRU
Hot Glue - amzn.to/3jM5ocZ
Stapler - amzn.to/3RPpDmT
Who needs nano leaf tiles when you can DIY an entire wall of LEDs! In this episode of Tech Random, Chris Parker is teaching you how to build your own 7-foot wide LED matrix for under $500! With a focus on beginner-friendly steps, Chris will walk you through the entire process of building the panels, connecting the LEDs, and using WebSockets to control the display over WiFi. This video is a must-watch for anyone who wants to add a pop of color and life to their room, or for those who are looking for a unique visual experience for their music or video calls. So get ready to ignite your creative side, as Chris takes you through the exciting world of LED walls!
Timestamps:
0:00 Demo of the Display
0:26 Introduction
0:50 3D Printing the Tiles
1:43 Materials and Supplies
2:19 Like the Video
2:35 Building the Panel
4:10 Testing the LEDs
5:27 Connecting the Power Supply
6:54 Adding the Diffuser
8:21 Fixing Broken Software
9:08 WebSockets
10:06 Single Panel Firmware
11:23 Four Panel Firmware
13:26 Final Thoughts - Наука та технологія
Very cool project,
As an open source software contributor it pained me to hear that you forked a project, fixed something that wasn't working, and didn't raise a Pull Request. That way, as long as the original maintainer is still around, we can have one working piece of software instead of a bunch of forks.
It might also be cool to make a version of the app which supports "profiles" so you can load all those settings or set them as a default from a config instead of setting the baud rate etc. every time you use it.
I checked the same thing before reading your comment.. No issue, no PR and even his fork is private.. He doesn't deserve open source code
Absolutely. If you're going to benefit from open source and take the time to fix a bug (or add enhancements) for your own use, please please please submit a PR upstream so we all benefit.
I left an issue on the repo hopefully this is corrected
@@Xxana99X Yeah, you're right. It's definitely better to entirely write someone off and say they don't "deserve" open source code (wtf does that even mean) instead of just telling them they should open a PR.
That way, you ensure that junior coders or people who are new to OSS get scared away from contributing, which is obviously the best way to ensure the OSS community continues thriving.
@@AnimusBehemoth man, if you take open source code, make an improvement or fix a bug, you MUST contribute by opening a PR, if you don't do so, you don't deserve the right to use it. You are going against the spirit of open source.
I think it’s common practice and code in the US that black is hot and white is neutral.
Thanks for pointing that out. Luckily I fixed it before anything caught on fire, but I hope anyone else who attempts this project catches my mistake
@@TheTechRandom came to say the same, fire is an unlikely outcome, but knowing the standards are best practice
.
Das racist
@@TheTechRandom Luckily, having hot/neutral swapped will do nothing bad, and the module to work as expected since it's AC power and not DC.
@@TheTechRandom Seems like an in-video note/overlay or at least something in the video notes would be appropriate here. Unless making an intentional mistake in the video is to spur comments - probably something less electrical would be appropriate there.
Hey man! Just stumbled upon your channel as I was researching LED Walls because it's a project I've dreamed of doing one day, your version is definitely the most accessible, budget friendly and clever i've seen so far :)
Thanks so much, I miss the days when I was just a freshman i college and would go to maker fairs and hackerspaces, now that I am older and have been working full time for a while i had almost forgotten how much fun combining engineering and creativity for cool projects such as this can be. I'm super motivated to start making stuff again, huge respect for not only being able to do it but also recording the process and uploading it to UA-cam. Keep it up!
You went big. Recommendations for safety and functionality upgrades:
1. Add inline automotive fuses on the DC outputs of the power supply in event of an electrical short, the fuse will trip and prevent the PSU burning your house down.
2. Improve FPS and prevent throttling your home network going all wired with a Teensy and Octoboard. Just one Ethernet cable can carry all that data to the display.
3. Alternative wireless options include PixelBlaze or WLED running on ESP32 with an output expander.
4. Consider using RGBW strips which will give better colors and reduce power draw for white or pastel colors.
replacing the cardboard and cloth backing with more flame retardant materials would be at the top of the list for me
I'm still wondering :what should be the correct diameter of the cable in DC? Power can produce 60A!?
@bugsburny this thing doesn’t get close to 60 amps. You could probably run the entire wall with a single 5 amp supply with the right changes to the code.
@@TheTechRandom you e are right because it would be centimeters of cable diameters. But 5 amps on 5v and 5 meters length represents already 6mm2!
It's 2.5mm2 with 12v
Or am I wrong and mixing up units?
@bugsburny 5V 5A is only 25 Watts. I’m using 16 gauge wire which can easily handle 60 Watts for up to 40 feet. I’m also running three parallel circuits to each of the four panels so each 16 gauge wire is only really carrying a few Watts of power. The whole thing stays super cool, I am even running it right now while it’s 100°F outside my apartment and I have no AC. I’m not sure how you’re calculating the wire thickness but something is definitely wrong.
Very cool build! Thank you! This will be on my to do list for sure! Great work.
Let's be honest I'm probably never going to try and do this but this was a super cool project and I loved your presentation style! I would love to have a smaller version of this in my office to display info like time, weather, crypto info etc.
One word....... STUNNED!!! you have really motivated me to get into leds. THanks
This is wild! Compared to tour/live events/staging LED walls, it's obviously not that great, but the way this works out is honestly very very impressive and I'd love to try it myself with my brother.
I cant wait to see what else you're going to do with this display!
I think it would also be pretty cool if there was some way that we could run this through a Cat5 type cable. It should be able to carry enough info considering the wall's resolution is pretty low, and it would solve your cable problem.
Best how to video I've seen for an LED project in forever! Super-Cool, well thought out, documented and yeah!! I'd like to see you double the rows of LEDs and increase the res!
Clear information is always welcome. This is exactly one of those projects where this is very important. Thanks for this explanation and keep it up. 👍
Don't forget: when recording voice over, crank your gain to -2db then you'll sound like you recorded you voice with a pillow
Well thank you for all your hard work. What an amazing video! I love your flow too. It's perfect!
I designed and had built a signboard for a rock band with 2500 LEDS wired as ten strings of of five connectorized strings of discrete "bulbs". The ten strings were driven using an AT750 CPLD to demultiplex the SPI bus from a Raspberry Pi. Every pair of bytes from the Pi sent one bit out each of the ten strings of LEDs. Doing things this way allowed a much higher total data rate than if all LEDs were in one string. The one problem with the sign is that many of the blue and green LEDs within the bulbs are failing. even though I've only been driving them at half brightness outside of a few flashing effects. I hope you have better luck with long-term longevity than I have.
This was an awesome build to watch!!
That was awesome...this will be the basis of a project I am about to work on. It was exactly the info I was looking for to help.
Thanks so much for making this tutorial. This will be very helpful for me in the future.
Happy to help!
I am sooo going to make my own version of this, using your design as a baseline template. Huge thank you, subbed!
Thank you for posting this video 🎉. You have a new subscriber. Keep up the great work 🎉.
Wow you just blew my mind ! what a brilliant project
Thank you so much for the documentation. It help a lot!
You're very welcome!
This is super cool. Good job
Seems like this would be very handy for virtual production. Could use as a lighting with color and proper shaping
awesome project and great documentation. Well done!
Thank you so much!
I've done a very small LED panel way back using Arduino UNO as the brain and It worked just fine but looking at this project using wifi and having the ability of adding more panels for making perhaps a big LED Wall is awesome. Thanks a lot for sharing this project. It made me want to go back to my old project and maybe creating a bigger panel just like yours. Regards.
Wow. Awesome work.
Awesome video
This is awesome man😍
awesome i like these kind of projects
I wonder if foaming Lightweight PLA would be a better option for its low weight and high volume. From what I understand, you could cut the total plastic 40% by weight while still having the same final build volume. Not sure if that is any more or less cost effective than some cheap spools of PLA though, I initially thought about this as a way to reduce the amount of filament needed.
I came by because I'm looking for a LED matrix for a (big) Nerf chronograph - and I see your Prometheus casually laying on the sill
Dude Ive wanted to get a screen to do background visualizers for my band and with this project, I think I make be able to do it affordably. I'm definitely subbing and liking to see your progress on this project and to try and make on for myself. Great video and great project dude.
Nice work!
Very cool!
Great video. One thing i would suggest is 3D printing a cover for the wired end of the power supply to make it safer.
That looks great! I've also built a WS2812B-Matrix with 720 Leds a while ago and i'm using the "Jinx!"-Software to control the panel.
I’ll have to check that out
Awesome project dude...!
First video I saw by you and got a sub. I would love to see this all hosted on a raspberry pi for the websock and then with the raspberry pi be able to use shareport sync(open source airplay) for the music and pass that data to the displays for the album art or lightshowpi for controlling the leds. Plus it could be cool if you use multicast/snapcast (I think is the name) to be able to like multiple raspberry pi's to play the song in different rooms with the music synced and maybe a panel in each room set to the audio visualizer. That would be a huge project but super cool to show off during a party
You're Awesome!!!
A little tip from an electrician: Never just put a stranded wire into one of those connections without a ferrule. You can get a thousand of them for maybe 5 bucks and you'll avoid a fire in your living room. If one of those strands happens to cross the terminals, you'll be lucky if the RCD ("residual current device", sometimes "RCCB", "residual current circuit breaker") catches it. If you're in the US, you probably live without an RCD (your electric grid and laws for electric installations are garbage) and your strand will quickly reach 1100 °C (2000 °F), likely causing a small fire before the stand can melt.
wow very cool dude! Love it I am into similar stuff
very cool!
cool build might try this one!
just one question if want to use it like for outdoor, how can you connect it to battery and what voltage and amp of battery do I need?
Black goes to live and white to neutral. You have them backwards.
what if its aftermarket?
After market will follow the code for whatever country it’s made in. Always look up the color code and don’t just assume black is ground like I did 😂
Thats super cool
This is great… I’m might actually try this one!
I hope you do! Thanks for watching
Oh wow its super large wled 👍🏻💪🏻🤙🏻 i love wled 👍🏻
You should use sk6812 rgbw for that extra white pixel or ws2812b, both in matrix variants 8x32cm. The pixel density is like 144 leds per meter and it gives you much higher resolution and they are fkexible with 3m sticky side at back.
For the controller go with esp32, inatall wled and then use it only as art-net reciever. Btw with one esp32 i was able to send data to more than 6k ws2812b leds on 30fps.
I'm using resolume arena to send video feed to the esp32. If i want to screen capture i'm using NDI inside resolume and it works without any problems.
Why would I need an extra white pixel for a video wall? 144 leds per meter would give a better resolution but it would also put the cost of this project through the roof. The goal of this project was to cover as much area as possible for a low cost so your suggestions are valid but they don't apply to this project specifically.
@@TheTechRandom @Tech Random the price is almost the same, so why not? :)
Price of one 8x32cm is around 10-15$ depending on brand for ws2812b. For a screen 2x1 meeters it's goins to cost around 250-300$ for the leds. With the matrix style leds you wont need any 3d printing also, just slap those leds on something and because of the density you wont need any diffuser, or if you want you can add PMMA opal layer for example on top.
For a 2x1 meter array I would need 13 x 7 of these tiles. The best price I can find on Ali express is $13 each bringing the total cost to $1,183. I'm not sure how you got $300 based on the numbers you gave...
@@TheTechRandom 12x6 for 96x192cm presumably, but 72 modules is still 720 bucks even if you are able to find them for 10 bucks each. And you definitely still need both diffusers and a printed mesh to get a good result. But you would get a much higher density, so there’s that.
love it :O
Very cool project! I'm looking into this to make a video display for VJ work through Resolume. Then I would also be able to break up the screen in several columns and spread them over the stage.
How bright would this setup be outside?
It’s amazing
Great explanation on how to do this! BTW,
Green = ground
Black = load/hot
White = neutral
For future reference folks, remember: DC wiring of black and white are different or reversed compared to AC household wiring: In Canada and the US (Single Phase - Split Phase)120v AC wiring
AC
white = Live/Load/Hot
black = neutral
green = ground
DC
red = positive
black = negative
white/grey = ground
RV owners troubleshooting their DC lights and other dc stuff often discover this difference when the electrical wiring installer of the DC circuit mistakenly continues the AC wiring colour scheme.
@@mikemotorbike4283 WRONG. AC BLACK IS LIVE.
Wow thanks man
Do you think it could work to install the leds on a textile so it can be rolled to put away? Im thinking about a band banner on stage, if it is a textile base it can be stored and installed in a very siple way on gigs...
Really cool! I'm an event planner looking for an alternative to renting LED walls from production companies, this might not exactly be the solution but it's super close! maybe If could find smaller LEDs I could mash together to get a higher resolution image. Also creating a way to setup/takedown and transport would be worth considering for someone in my situation.
All in all, you did a great job! I subbed off the video alone. You made this very easy to understand and feel like something I could do even with no engineering background. Thank you, this was a great help in my research!
there's 144 pixel/m ws2812b strips, for example. if you mount those very close to each other there's barely any space between each LED. just will have to be mindful of increased power consumption and how quickly your amount of pixels increases (making them harder to drive at higher framerates).
Hello, Im stuck attime 10m:12s, i uploaded the Single_LED_Wall_Reciever to ESP then connect it to Panel. Then takr fresh ESP8266 then upload Single_LED_Wall_Source to it. it is still connected to my laptop but the first LED on the panel doesnt lit even the power is on. may you help me please.
A few things to try first: flash the FastLED test to your panel to make sure the leds are set up correctly. You’ll also want to try the LMCSHD test with the panel plugged directly into your computer. Once both of those tests are working, then you can move onto the wireless code. Each level will likely require some debugging, which is an important skill for embedded development projects like this, so it’s good to start small and work towards the final version. With LMCSHD I’ve noticed a lot of issues with the Serial->Connect button not actually connecting to the board. If it connects properly, the size will be set automatically. Otherwise you will need to connect again until the size gets set. Make sure you’re using the correct bitrate (bpp) and baud rate for each mode. For the LMCSHD test I think it’s a 24bpp bitrate but for the wireless version it’s only 16 bpp. Good luck!
haha nice dude, thanks !!
Great video! Would it be possible to run all 4 panels on one ESP32?
I would be nice to see HDMI connection on this so it can be used in churches as a low budget substitute for high end LED walls
HDMI requires hardware decoding which would significantly increase the complexity of this project. For churches you’d probably want a higher resolution to read song lyrics and such so a projector is going to be a better choice. I am working on a higher resolution version though and I’ll look into adding hdmi if possible
Badass.. Rock On
GOAT
I would love to make one of these, but I'd need it to show up as a display device in Windows, preferably driven by an HDMI or DP signal. Any ideas how I could make that happen?
Just some notes on the connections. First, when soldering the wires to the 8266 board, the wires should have gone through the board, not surface mount soldered. Going through the board will give a stronger connection. Second, when connecting the line cord to the power supply, you have black and white reversed. Technically since it's AC, it will still work, but also, you referred to the white as live. It's not live, it's line. You also have your line cord wires fed the wrong way. When you bend them, they should have been fed from the left side of the screw, not the right, since the screw will push the wire from left to right (at the top) which will help pull the wires under the screw better. Having it looped right to left can cause the wire to slide out of the screw as it is tightened.
Hello dear friend, is there an option to make this beautiful thing you made, but with 6 strips of 5 meters each (without cutting)? Of course I supply the voltage externally and not through the controller?
Tip for anyone struggling to connect their ESP8266 to PC/Arduino - not all cables are alike! You MUST have a mini-USB cable with data lines, the ones you get with chargers only have power lines, you need a thicker, good quality cable :)
You can probaly glue some pingpong balls on those led holes. Would look funky. Nice project and great explanation! THanks!
Cool project. I would like to see what you could do with this and the free version of touchdesigner.
if you remove the inner LED's can you make ambient lights around your TV like Lytmi responsive lights
?
That’s certainly an option. There are probably better tutorials for that type of project though. This solution is way more complicated
They now have UCS8903 pixels available which are 16-Bit, compared to most pixels that are 8-Bit, with the exception of GS8208 which is 12-Bit. The extra Bits would really pay off in a project like this. However the UCS8903 is harder to find and considerably more expensive than the lower bit varieties.
MAKE IT A FLOOR! sweet
Giant LED Wall: 😃
Electricity bill: 💀⚰️
If there a place where I could order the frame
I clicked the link and say the 300 light option in the same length, Hence doubling the resolution, Is this in fact that simple, I know the 3d print would also need adjusted but is it as simple as purchasing the 300 instead of the 150 ?
You’d also need to by twice as many strips to cover the same area since you’ll need to put them closer together. If you edit the code and reduce the max brightness to 25% then you should still be able to power everything with 4 supplies. Keep in mind that the max brightness test and single matrix test don’t have an easy way to set a low brightness. You’ll most likely need to run everything in a wired configuration some the wireless signal already lags a bit this lower resolution
@@TheTechRandom It shows the strips are the same length, it just adds lights closer together.
The power supply I understand will need upgraded. And wire would be ok also as it would be for a store display.
I see why double, For the resolution going vertical. Makes sense after I thought about it.
A version of Tetris would be fun. The Tetris blocks should match the led pixels.
Would the software be able to handle 24 segments instead of 4, as long as I had a stronger server?
I'm looking at making a much more dense one of these.
_(looking at those tighter 144 pixel addressable strips, and stacking them 6 pixels tall for trim pieces.)_
_I have an extra dedicated router, that I can force channels(limiting WiFi traffic), and a handful of mini PCs that any one would have plenty of compute for a dedicated server._
I think you would need to go with a wired connection to get a decent refresh rate with that many pixels. My four panel setup maxes out at around 18 frames per second so 24 panels may only be able to get 3 fps. Also keep in mind the power draw and brightness of this type of display. Even at a low brightness you’ll want a strong diffuser so you don’t need sunglasses to see the image.
Really cool project. How different it would be if you want to use a webcam ? I'm trying to find how to do something like that.
If you skip to the end of the video I demonstrate using my computers webcam as the video feed. Since it mirrors my screen I can just use the camera app that comes with the PC.
The newest version of WLED has support for matrix led setups
Awesome tutorial! At the end when you're using the wall to play video from a camera there's a little bit of latency. Could this be reduced by using wires instead of web sockets or reducing the size of the grids? I'm looking into building something similar with WS2812b 16x16 matrices to be powered by touch designer
There’s no latency using wires. Smaller grids have less latency and a higher frame rate!
@@TheTechRandom is there a reason you didn't use DMX?
Adding DMX support would require additional hardware and the firmware on each ESP 8266 would have to translate that data into something the LEDs can read. LMCSHD sends a bit stream formatted for addressable LEDs so there’s no processing delay between the frame being sent by a PC and getting displayed. All of the delay in my project comes from the transmission time of the web socket
Bonjour, super sympa ce que tu as fait. Tu crois qu'on pourrais faire le meme genre de chose à mettre au sol?
my dream was always to see an LEC PC like this. even just one side would rule.
I'd like to see an even bigger one of these. Big enough to play games on or watch youtube.
What’s the spacing between LED strips?
Great video and project with good audio and lighting, editing and chapters are also very nice. Maybe the cardboard was an oversight, and I'm sure it's fine, until it isn't... I'm not trying to Troll here but 300 Watts plugged into cardboard and a bed sheet? What could possibly go wrong... At the very least if anyone tries this please consider replacing the cardboard with something that helps sink the heat of the LEDs, and is not an immediate fire hazard should (when) the SHTF. I really like the diffuser STLs here. I'm going to print these and a few others for a suspended ceiling tile matrix. These might be the winner they are nice and big. For that project, I plan to use a ceiling tile diffuser for the bottom and the top. Not sure if the bottom is getting painted black or wrapped in a mylar sheet. Have to test those out too. Anyway, please don't take my criticism of the cardboard the wrong way.
This is great advise! I chose cardboard to keep the budget low but I’ll admit it’s not the safest choice. I think this panel design would work really well as ceiling lights!
@@TheTechRandom I'll let you know how it turns out.
Nice project!
I have some questions about, let's call it "pixel size". Have you tried making individual pixels smaller so you can fit more of them on one display making it higher resolution? I guess that the size of your divider grid is a result of space between individual LEDs on your strip, but have you tried using LED strips with higher LEDs density or maybe even individual LEDs?
I’ve used higher density strips for other projects but my goal with this was to make the biggest screen possible for a reasonable price. If I used a smaller pixel size I would have needed more LEDS, more power supplies, and more controllers. The cost adds up really fast!
Very Cool! @Zero :D
Something that I figured out AFTER building my first matrix was the the power can come from anywhere, but the data line must be linear, so you can bridge the power wires on either, or both sides of the strip, and run your data in a line, serpentine is the easiest to solder tho.
Just don't forget to tie all the grounds together
@@smoothbraindetainer Yes, ground is included in the 2 required power wires that can be connected whatever way works best
Amazing, How to improve resolution??
Can i scale this to 20ft x 40ft?
I uploaded the reciever code in the esp and then took new esp and uploaded the source code, and when i connect to power first i see white light comes on followed by purple light only, it stays on purple light, i dont see any series of different color light as it is shown in video, and when i connect in lmcshd, my screen does not mirror in my panel. I dont know what am i doing wrong
Sometimes I have to connect LMCSHD multiple times to get it to work right. If your matrix dimensions don’t automatically get set then close the pop up and try connecting again. Once the dimensions autofill it should work!
Could you integrate NDI streaming to it? It would be great if I could use it with resolume or other software
Instead of using the ESP, use a proper pixel controller that takes Art-Net or sACN. Then there is plentyof software which can take NDI and output it to the pixel grid with relatively low latency.
Soo if i want to upgrade the resolution is it just as simple as adding more/dense LED and still follow the rest of the steps?
Heat is a big concern with more pixels so you probably won’t want to use cardboard. I’m also worried the WiFi transmission will lag at higher resolution but I haven’t tested it. Other than that this design is completely scalable!
@@TheTechRandom i’ll follow your steps and will use a different background (aluminium sheet?) lets see how it goes! Perhaps hdmi is a better connection instead of wifi?
Can i connect artnet protocol ?
Very nice video, but you really should put a diode on the ESP8266 power input (cathode towards the ESP8266) so if you plug it in with USB your computer doesn't try to power up all the LEDs too. I also learned that the USB port on my computer had a fuse of lower capacity than the fuse on the ESP8266 board.
Only data and ground are connected between the LEDs and the esp8266 to prevent this. Great observation!
@@TheTechRandom 3:55 You show connecting 5V, data, and ground. The Wemos D1 Mini clones do have a fuse between 5V USB and the 3.3V regulator/ 5V pin header, but it does not prevent backpowering over USB nor does it prevent the USB port from attempting to power the LED strip. I did this once as you had shown, on a smaller LED strip, where I needed to re-flash the device over USB as the OTA update did not work. I connected it (the device is at the ceiling, so a USB extension and 5V power were pulled through the wall to a low voltage box). It fried a USB port when the microcontroller tried to turn the LEDs on. To truly fix the potential problems does require 2 diodes (replacing the fuse with a diode in addition to the LED strip to microcontroller diode). That allows leaving it all in place and powered while flashing the module.
Yes, disconnecting the module from the LEDs is another way to accomplish the same task, but some people are going to want to put a similar panel in a relatively inaccessible place and might, like I had done, wire a USB extension. Or they might use their laptop to flash the device, and just plug it in while mounted. One 1N4001 is a whole lot less expensive than replacing a USB port. Swapping the fuse for the surface mount diode requires a bit more soldering skill. Some D1 Mini clones apparently already have this diode and then the fuse. Mine did not.
Using alluminum foil on top of the cardboard or even white cardboard would probably help the brightness, same withe having the 3d printed part being white
These are good ideas but I actually have to run the wall at only 10% brightness, otherwise it’s too bright to look at. It does look dimmer on camera than it does in real life but when I first built it I had to wear sunglasses whenever I had it on!
@@TheTechRandom ahh that does make sense, but imo if it was just as bright at even 9% power I would consider that an absolute win.
Less power cost, less heat generated and longer lasting leds
How did you calculate the dimensions of the 3d printed grid? I am using 60 led/m strips and need to adjust the scale of the grid.
I used calipers to get the exact dimensions for the model. Since mine is for a 30 led/m strip you can print the tiles at 50% scale and they should work!
How feasable is a set of 5+ panels with your software? would more adgustments need to be made or just continuing to follow the steps with all additional panels?
You would need to modify the code slightly to add a fifth panel but it should be pretty clear since you’ll just need to call each function a 5th time.
@@TheTechRandom Is there any limit on how many can effectively be sent?
i wanted to do this a year or two ago but when i priced out the addressable LEDs on digikey they were over $1,500 for the size panel i wanted and i immediately gave up.
addressable led strips were going to be outrageous in price too so that was not happening.
i also wanted to use frosted acrylic as a diffuser cut into squares and that's not free either.
You should definitely give this method a try. It’s way more affordable than I was expecting when I started.
Just a thought experiment, what happens if the pixels are placed closer together, technically making it higher res? Will the LEDs start to interfere with each others?
No interference issues but there’s a few other things to worry about. The microcontroller can only drive so many pixels before it starts to skip frames. More pixels will create more heat so cardboard will not be a suitable material. You’ll also need bigger power supplies with multiple injection points throughout the screen to ensure even brightness. Not impossible but it gets exponentially more expensive as you add more pixels which is why I think this design is an extremely cost effective middle ground!
I built this and the software side was a bit of a mess. It worked enough to make me happy, but it wasn't good enough to use easily. Recently I realized that I could flash WLED to the ESP8266 which made it immensely easier to use.
I’ll have to try the WLED matrix effects. Does your setup use a single panel or multiple?
Anyone have an alternative to printing the grids? Something that can be purchased on Amazon or picked up at Lowes or Home Depot?
I suspect that one could go to some Dollar Stores and find little organizers with grids like that, for real cheap. Just spray paint them black.
Personally, I would not want my 3D printer going solid 24/7 for a month.
Perhaps using 16X16 flexible RGB LED modules would be better. No grid needed!
WS2812 might work and they aren't too expensive.
If you have it available or have a makerspace near you, laser cutter would take less than an hour and maybe $50 max material.
Cool